Is HTTP a protocol primarily used for encryption?

HTTP is a simple request-response protocol that usually runs on top of TCP.

It specifies what kind of messages the client may send to the server and what kind of response it gets. The headers of request and response messages are given in ASCII code; the message content has a MIME-like format. This simple model was instrumental in the early success of the Web because it made development and deployment so straightforward. (Recommended learning: web front-end video tutorial)

In 1990, HTTP became the supporting protocol of the WWW. It was proposed by its founder Tim Bemers-Lee, the father of WWW, and then the WWW Consortium was established and organized the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) group to further improve and release the HTTP protocol.

HTTP is an application layer protocol. Like other application layer protocols, it is a protocol for implementing a certain type of specific application, and its functions are implemented by an application running in user space.

HTTP is a protocol specification. This specification is recorded in the document and is an implementation program of HTTP that actually communicates through the HTTP protocol.

The HTTP protocol communicates based on the C/S architecture. The server-side implementation programs of the HTTP protocol include httpd, nginx, etc. The client-side implementation programs are mainly web browsers, such as Firefox and Internet Explorer. , Google chrome, Safari, Opera, etc. In addition, the client's command line tools include elink, crul, etc.

Web service is based on TCP, so in order to respond to client requests at any time, the Web server needs to listen on port 80/TCP. The client browser and the web server can communicate through the HTTP protocol.

At the beginning of HTTP's birth, it was mainly used for content acquisition on the WEB side. At that time, the content was not as rich as it is now, the layout was not as exquisite, and there were almost no user interaction scenarios.

For this simple scenario of obtaining web content, HTTP performs pretty well. But with the development of the Internet and the birth of WEB2.0, more content began to be displayed (more picture files), layout became more exquisite (more CSS), and more complex interactions were introduced (more jS).

The total amount of data loaded and the number of requests when a user opens the homepage of a website are also increasing. Today, the home page size of most portal websites exceeds 2M, and the number of requests can be as high as 100.

Another widespread application is client APP on the mobile Internet. The use of HTTP by APPs of different natures varies greatly. For e-commerce apps, there may be more than 10 requests to load the homepage. For IMs such as WeChat, HTTP requests may be limited to downloading voice and picture files, and the frequency of requests is not high.

The above is the detailed content of Is HTTP a protocol primarily used for encryption?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!